Policing needs reform to cope with modern criminals, Met Police chief warns

Sir Mark Rowley proposes replacing England and Wales’s 43 separate police forces with a three-tier system. It would combine local policing with larger regional organisations and a new national force. He says urgent reform is needed because modern criminals operate across boundaries while policing remains heavily localised.

The first tier would be hundreds of local commands handling neighbourhood concerns. Eight to 10 regional forces would share specialist resources and tackle threats beyond one community. A National Police Service would handle the most serious and complex crimes, including threats requiring national coordination.

The plan would be the biggest policing overhaul since the 1960s. Support has appeared among senior police leaders, and the Home Secretary launched a consultation. However, police and crime commissioners in some rural areas oppose mergers, warning that local services could become more remote or lose funding. The prime minister has not publicly backed the proposals.

Local commands would deal with neighbourhood issues and keep policing connected to individual communities. Their work would focus on the local victim, local concerns and maintaining a visible presence. This tier is intended to preserve the benefits of local knowledge even while larger structures are created.

Regional forces would cover wider areas and share specialist resources. They could reduce duplication between today’s 43 forces and coordinate responses to crimes that cross local boundaries. The National Police Service would tackle the most serious and complex crimes, giving national capacity to threats that individual forces may struggle to handle alone.

The proposed tiers reflect the article’s central distinction: the victim may remain local, but the threat may not. Organised crime, fraud, cybercrime and online child abuse can cross regional or international borders. The model is intended to combine local access with regional scale and national expertise, though commissioners question whether mergers are necessary.

England and Wales currently have 43 separate police forces. Sir Mark Rowley’s proposal would reduce this structure to eight to 10 much larger regional forces. Those forces would sit between hundreds of local policing commands and a new National Police Service.

This is not simply a small administrative adjustment. It would create three connected levels of policing and replace the existing force map with a substantially different system. Larger regional forces would share specialist resources, while local commands would continue dealing with neighbourhood problems. The national tier would focus on the most serious crimes.

The article describes the proposal as the biggest overhaul of policing since the 1960s. Supporters believe merging forces could reduce duplicated work and free thousands of roles for frontline policing. Opponents fear a decade of disruption, weaker local control and resources being diverted from rural areas. The final shape remains uncertain because the prime minister has not publicly endorsed the plan.

Organised crime groups, fraud networks, cyber-criminals and online child-abuse offenders can operate across several regions or countries. Digital communication and international connections allow threats to move beyond the area where a victim lives. This makes it harder for one local force to see the full pattern or coordinate the whole investigation.

The article gives a stark example: children may be groomed by predators on another continent. The child and the victim’s immediate harm remain local, but the offender, evidence or wider network may be elsewhere. Effective policing therefore requires information-sharing, specialist skills and coordination across boundaries.

Sir Mark Rowley says the current structure is struggling because 43 forces are trying to do too much with too little. Regional forces could share specialist resources, while a National Police Service could handle the most complex cases. The proposed model aims to connect local protection with broader investigations, although critics doubt mergers are the only way to achieve that.

Sir Mark Rowley says leaving the current system unchanged creates a risk of failure. In his warning, failure would mean solving fewer crimes and having less local police presence. That could reduce the system’s ability to protect communities while criminals operate across wider areas.

The mechanism is pressure and duplication. The article says 43 forces are overstretched and trying to do too much with too little. Their local organisation may not fit threats involving organised crime, fraud, cybercrime or online child abuse. Rowley believes mergers could reduce duplicated work and redirect thousands of roles towards frontline policing.

The consequences are contested. Supporters see restructuring as a way to improve capacity and public safety. Critics fear the transition itself could cause disruption, cut local services or make policing more remote. Funding is also a concern: police funding has fallen from 0.9% to 0.7% of GDP, according to Rowley.

One alternative is to keep more local forces but build permanent systems for cooperation. Existing forces could share specialist teams, intelligence and equipment across regional boundaries. This would address the article’s concern about duplicated capacity without immediately replacing every local organisation.

A second option is a strong National Police Service for the most complex crimes, alongside formal regional partnerships. National specialists could handle cybercrime, international networks and online child abuse, while local forces continued neighbourhood work. Regional agreements could coordinate major investigations and specialist resources without creating full “mega-forces”.

These approaches would preserve more local control, which is the concern raised by Dorset and Kent commissioners. They would also avoid some disruption from mergers. However, the article does not provide a detailed alternative blueprint. It records that the case for modernisation and a National Police Service is clearer to the APCC than the case for reducing 43 forces to nine regional forces.

The article highlights police funding as a central pressure. Sir Mark Rowley says funding in England and Wales has fallen from 0.9% of GDP to 0.7%. In general, policing is financed through central government funding and locally raised contributions, while elected police and crime commissioners oversee local priorities and hold chief constables to account. The article specifically focuses on the funding decline and commissioners’ objections.

Larger forces could reduce duplicated management and share expensive specialist resources. That may make limited money and staff go further. But changing boundaries can move decisions away from individual communities. Commissioners fear local areas could lose resources to national structures or metropolitan centres, rather than receiving stronger frontline services.

That creates a democratic trade-off. Regional organisation may improve efficiency and coordination, but local commissioners and communities could have less direct influence over priorities. The article records demands for public consultation and warnings that policing could become more remote. Any reform would therefore need to balance scale, accountability, funding and local control.